Dow Jones has sued a London-based aggregation service, Ransquawk, for allegedly accessing its news feed and publishing its content within seconds of its original publication.

The legal action - as reported by Reuters - accuses Ransquawk (Real-Time Analysis & News) of "hot news" misappropriation by taking a "free ride" on journalistic content that the originator spent time and expense to create.

In its filing to the US district court in Manhattan, Dow Jones accuses Ransquawk of "nearly instantaneously cutting, pasting, and broadcasting" content from its DJX service, which includes news unavailable to the general public.

"Its business model is as simple as it is illegal," says the filing. By accessing such content without permission, and without its own reporting or analysis, Ransquawk can offer a "pirated product" to traders at a cheaper price,.

Dow Jones is aiming to halt to further misappropriation and seeking damages of $5m (£3.04m).

Reuters quotes Ransquawk's chief executive and founder, Ranvir Singh, as saying in a email: "Whilst we obviously strongly deny any accusations made against us by Dow Jones... we will only be in a position to make a full statement tomorrow."